Game Face
by SilverWolf7
Summary: Eighth story in the Lucifer's Flock series! During a job with Lucifer, Dan sees Lucifer's face when he's in his Devil Mode. He understands now why Linda said it was horrifying. He urges him to tell the others.
1. The Devil's Face

Dan frowned at the door in front of him. Slowly, he pulled out his gun, because this was not right.

Behind him, Lucifer got out of the car, even though he had been ordered to sit and stay. Figured that Lucifer could give Trixie instructions like a dog, but the moment it's him, he ignored everything and did what he wanted.

"Oooh, a break in, then?" Lucifer asked, smiling at him.

"Shhhhh, the thief might still be inside and armed."

Lucifer rolled his eyes and nodded. "Yes, well, why bother with your gun? I can't be shot by the little human thief."

Dan rolled his eyes back at his tagger-on. This was supposed to be an easy task to be sent on. A quick checking of a house after a 911 call that someone suspicious was lurking around a house and the owner was afraid they'd try breaking in. Looks like the fear was warranted.

Lucifer opened the door and stepped in without a care in the word, a smile still on his face. He wasn't even being quiet about it.

On one hand, it was a good way of getting the perp to show himself if he was still inside. On the other hand, if he had been human like Dan, he'd likely be shot or stabbed if he ran into anyone.

"Hello? Are there any people here in the house? Police!"

A gun shot rang out and Lucifer spoke right afterwards. "Well, that isn't nice...this was a new suit too."

Another shot rang out.

"Not wearing a bullet proof vest, here. I am bullet proof. But, seriously, a head shot? I said the cops were here, I didn't say I was one of them."

Dan listened to all this as he slowly eased his way closer to where Lucifer was keeping the shooter busy. He sped up a bit when he began to hear screaming. He ended up stopping dead once he turned the corner that led to the house's kitchen because he had seen something he knew he was not supposed to see.

Well, THAT explained a lot.

Lucifer's reluctance to show them his scars from the Fall, even though they knew he still had them. His adamant no about showing them personally, even though none of them were afraid. Why Linda had said it was horrific.

Linda wasn't saying Lucifer's face was horrific because it was terrifying, though it did look very devilish. She said it because it looked that bad.

Lucifer's skin and hair were gone, leaving behind the worst third degree burns he had ever seen. It was all muscle, tendon, tiny bits of bone. His neck and hands were the same kind of burnt. Dan had the sneaking suspicion it covered his entire body and he wondered if the reason why Lucifer loved sex so much was because here on Earth, living in his human appearance, he was actually _able_ to have sex.

It was probably just as bad as he was thinking.

He wondered where the human appearance came from.

"Lucifer!" he called out and the man on the floor with the gun now on the floor in a puddle of what looked like urine screamed again and scrambled back.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" the man whimpered over and over again and Dan rolled his eyes. This was always a job hazard when taking Lucifer anywhere. He had no idea why that face would drive people insane though. He was fine.

He thought he was fine at least...

Lucifer turned to look at him, the human appearance immediately back on by the time he had fully turned around. "Dan..."

"Yeah, come on, time to book this one."

He pulled out his handcuffs, used them on the thief and begun dragging his body back to the car.

At one stage the man must have fainted. Too much for one human mind to take all at once, maybe? He had fainted when he had seen Lucifers wings that first time, after all.

He couldn't get the thought out of his head that God was likely responsible for those horrific full body burns. Either that or Michael. Wasn't Michael the one who did the actual chucking out?

Dan was...really confused.

When he got back to the house to check on the caller, he found a dead body and Lucifer leaning over her.

"Well, at least she got to call the police and we caught the bad guy..." the devil stated, before getting up.

Dan noticed he refused to meet his gaze.

"Yeah. It happens. Come on, back to the station. Nothing much we can do here."

Dan quickly called it in, as Lucifer went back out to the car. As soon as the coroner had arrived, he left.

Lucifer had yet to say another word and, when they reached the station they both stayed in the car for a few silent minutes.

Then Lucifer turned to him, his eyes pleading. "Please don't tell the Detective and Ella."

Dan nodded. "Sure. I'll leave that to you." And he added on a quiet "Does it hurt?"

Lucifer sighed. "Only when the weather is cooler."

Nodding again, Dan opened his door and stepped out of the car. "Okay. For what it's worth man, I'm sorry."

Lucifer closed his eyes and leaned his head back. "Yeah."

Dan left him in the car to mope. He had actual work to do with the thief turned murderer.


	2. Planning With Linda

Planning with Linda

"How do you make someone say something if they really don't want to talk about it?" Dan asked Linda, who was sitting in her chair across from him. He shifted on the couch, suddenly aware that it was probably a stupid question to ask a psychiatrist.

"You don't. May I ask what this is about?" she counters and Dan flinched, seeing that scarred head in his mind when he briefly closed his eyes.

He got very little sleep last night.

"I saw Lucifer's scars yesterday and he shut down on me."

Linda leaned forward towards him. "He showed you?"

Dan shook his head. "No, not so much showed me as I walked in on him showing a murdering thief. It was...I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before in my life."

Linda nodded and sat back, crossing her legs in front of her. "He uses that part of him as a punishment. It does look a lot more like the archetypal devil look than what he usually looks like. If a person is guilty, it tends to really do damage. He's left quite a few people in mental wards from what Chloe tells me during our girls' nights."

Dan frowned. "Do you think Chloe knows?"

Linda shook her head. "I think she might have glimpsed it once, but thought she was imagining things, and has since wiped it from her conscious memory. But does she _know_ know? I very much doubt it. As you may have guessed from his going on about it when he was relearning to fly, he very much didn't want any of you to see him like that."

Dan hummed and nodded. "Yeah. I asked him if it hurt. He said only when it's cold. No wonder he chose a temperate place to live. Warm weather most of the year."

Linda listened to what he said, an eyebrow raised slightly at that. "Well, congratulations. You know more about this than I do. He never talks about it, but at least with support he might open up a bit about it. Showing me almost broke the both of us. It made him more gun-shy than he already was about it."

Sighing, Dan nodded in understanding. It was unlikely he'd never talk about it. "Okay, so I won't push him into telling me anything about it. But he should show the others. Especially with the upcoming winter. Now I know what I do, I wonder if he's warm enough in only one of those suits of his. At least we don't get below freezing weather here."

Linda nodded at him, perking up in her seat. "Yes! I've urged him on that. You saw me trying to get him to show you all during his flying lessons. But he's the most stubborn man I know. I wonder if that's an angelic trait or just a Lucifer one."

Dan barely knew any other angels and he was pretty sure Amenadiel wasn't a good example to be set for a comparison. But if he was... "I think it's an angel thing. Once they get something into their heads, it's really in there."

Linda grinned and nodded. "Oh yeah. You have no idea how annoying that can be for me."

Dan laughed. "I can definitely guess. I'm trying to teach Amenadiel how to improvise and it is not going well. Like, at all. You tell him not to talk of certain topics...all he does is do those topics. It's like he has no internal filter and can't help himself. I don't know if that is true or if he just is so stubborn he'll do what he likes."

Linda giggled and shook her head. "It's times like that you can really tell that they actually are blood relations and not adopted, regardless of not looking anything alike. Sometimes they are just so...similar in mannerisms."

Dan nodded. "Very true. So! Maybe we should talk to him together as the two who know. He made me promise not to tell anyone. I wasn't going to anyway, because that's his story to tell, but...I think he really should show the girls. This is something I think they should know, if for no other reason than we can help him be more comfortable during the winter months."

Linda cocked her head to one side, a frown overtaking her grin. "It could work if he knows that we aren't going to tell anyone against his wishes. Though he could think I have been gossiping about him."

Dan shook his head. "I'll tell him I talked to you because you obviously knew and no, you didn't tell me anything he's told you in the privacy of sessions."

Linda nodded. "Okay, let's do this then. Wednesday night good for you?"

Nodding, Dan stood up. "I'll tell him we want to talk to him privately without the others about it, but he doesn't have to say anything, but it'd be good to know he has support."

"Okay. I'll call him too later on tonight, just to make him aware of things. One of us will get the message to him before the other."

Nodding, plan sort of made, Dan walked towards the door. "See you Wednesday then, Linda."

She smiled at him. "Yes. Oh, and Dan? I know this is hard to deal with. And know that you can always talk to me, you know, as a friend not as a session. More like an exchange of information as opposed to...you know what? I'm going to shut up now, because I am beginning to ramble. Goodbye, Dan."

Shaking his head, he waved at her. "Bye."

Before Wednesday in two days' time, he needed to think of the kinds of things he'd like to say or do.

Yeah, that confusion was still definitely there.


	3. The Meeting

The Meeting

Telling Lucifer that he and Linda wanted to talk to him with just the three of them had been the easy part of getting Wednesday sorted out in some planned chat. The hard part was getting him there, especially when he ended up being on babysitting duty that night, as Chloe had to go to a conference that day.

So, they had to change plans on Monday night, so that it wasn't only at Chloe's apartment instead of his, but also later on at night, so Trixie was in bed to start off with.

If Trixie got wind that Lucifer was over, she'd never sleep. He was her favourite person in the world to play with.

He wondered sometimes if Lucifer had corrupted his daughter to be the mischievous, bribing girl she was, until he remembered she had always been that way.

In the end, their plans had all been smoothed out, Lucifer had reluctantly agreed once they had gotten him to come over when Trixie was asleep. And, better yet, it meant he wasn't avoiding Dan any longer. It had been a long couple of days having been asked to stay away.

Poor Ella was beginning to drop from having to do twice as much Lucifer wrangling duties with his wings and temperament he had been feeling guilty over it, even though it was nothing to do with him wanting to stay away.

Now with the meeting looming and Lucifer still being a no-show, he was beginning to worry. Linda sat on the couch, watching a movie he would recognise by the music alone. Frozen. He was sick of that movie...

A knock on the door had him jumping up and running to open it, before the noise woke up Trixie. To his relief, it was Lucifer on the other side. "Shit, man, we thought you were going to be a no-show. Get in here, and be quiet. Trixie's asleep."

He grabbed Lucifer and pulled him in, before the devil could run off in the opposite direction. He kept a hold of his arm until he was in front of the couch and dumped his ass on one side of Linda. He took the other side.

Lucifer sighed loudly. "Okay, so, here I am. No need to tell me what you want to talk about, I already get that. You've both laid out the whole point of this chat. I don't understand why we have to do this though. It's pointless. You both know, you both haven't freaked out. That's fine. I get it. Why do we have to talk about it?"

"Lucifer, you've been keeping me away from you since I found out. Not only does that make me feel bad, but it is also unfair on Ella who has picked up my part in the flock. She's not doing too well lately, if you haven't noticed."

Lucifer blinked at him. "What do you mean not doing well? She's' gotten a bit slower, sure, but she's just tired."

Dan buried his head in his hands and shook it from side to side. "You are clueless sometimes when it comes to humans, you know that?"

Lucifer at least had the decency to look away and shrug. Yeah, he totally knew that.

"Okay you two, stop it. Lucifer, do you want to tell Dan the reason why you have been avoiding him?"

"No, I don't."

Linda folded her arms and stared in the direction the angel was sitting in. "Well, you will if you don't want Trixie up and having her snuggle up in your lap."

Lucifer blinked at that and shifted his gaze from Linda to him. "I thought you wanted the spawn asleep?"

Dan shrugged. "If it gets you to stay put, I'm willing to have her be a tired pest at school tomorrow by keeping her up all night if necessary. Answer Linda's question."

With a grin on his face, Lucifer crossed his own arms. "I did answer her question. She asked if I wanted to tell you. I said no. Question answered."

Linda sighed. "Lucifer, Dan needs to know. I'll make it a demand next time. Either tell him or I will go and get Trixie."

Obviously, thinking it was some sort of bluff, Lucifer leaned his head on the back of the couch and closed his eyes. "No."

Dan lifted a hand and put it on Linda's shoulder. "I'll go get her. She won't be as taken back with me waking her as she would with you. She doesn't know you well."

Nodding, Linda let him go. He got up and made his way to Trixie's room to go get her up. He had been hoping this wouldn't be necessary, but it was obvious Lucifer wasn't going to talk without the use of their only weapon against him. The affections of an 8 year old human girl.

It kind of scared him that Trixie was almost 9 now.

As it was, he didn't have to wake his girl up. She was up and listening at the door with an innocent look on her face that was so faked, he was actually proud of her more nefarious skills. He knew his daughter wasn't malicious or bad.

"Hey daddy. Is Lucifer okay?"

Shaking his head, Dan bent down and with a heave, picked the girl up. She was getting far too big to carry like this, but he would do it for as long as she would allow it and he was capable of lifting her. "No. I found out something he didn't want me to know about and he is upset over it. He's avoiding me because of it."

Trixie hugged him. "Is it because he's the devil?"

He blinked and looked at her. "Well, not really. I've known that for a while. He needed someone to help with his wings and he asked me to help."

Trixie perked right on up at learning that. "Can I see his wings?! Will he show me?"

He grinned. "Maybe if you ask nicely he will show them off. Now, why don't we go out there and you go and sit in his lap."

She hugged him and squealed as quietly as she could in his ear. "Yay! Lucifer!" she shouted, wriggled out of his arms and back to the ground and did a tackle jump right onto the couch and into the devil's arms.

He heard Lucifer cough as she landed a sharp elbow on his belly. He grinned widely at the look of frozen horror on Lucifer's face.

Dan sat himself back down in his seat on the couch and smirked. "So, will you tell us? The sooner you do, the sooner she goes back to bed."

"Ah...yes, hello Beatrice. Can you please move your elbow from my gut?"

They all watched as she moved around until she was in a comfortable position, her arms thrown around his neck and clinging on as tight as she could without strangling him.

For some reason, Lucifer seemed to unfreeze for once and, as much a shock to both he and Linda, his arms circled around the girl.

Trixie let out a satisfied sigh and laid her head on his chest.

Dan stared. "Umm, okay. So, Lucifer, why are you avoiding me?"

Lucifer looked at the girl in his arms and shrugged. "Do I have to talk about this in front of the spawn?"

"That depends on if you have to call my daughter spawn."

Lucifer tried grinning, but fell flat. Dan sighed. "Man, she already knows you're the devil. What will it hurt?"

Lucifer shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with where this was all going. Trixie giggled and snuggled further into his lap so she didn't get shoved off.

"Fine, fine! I'm just not...I don't want to complicate things. Things are already far more complicated than I am comfortable with right now and adding this on...I just can't decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing and that makes me want to just ignore it. And to ignore it, I have to be away from you."

Dan rolled his eyes upwards and wondered if God was hearing this and if he was having a good old laugh in Heaven. "Lucifer, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard for a reason to avoid someone that isn't bothered."

Lucifer clung on tighter to Trixie and she squirmed until his grip loosened slightly. "No, it's not! And you are bothered by it. I can tell. You're not getting enough sleep. I drive people mad, Dan."

Rolling his eyes again, he threw his hands in the air. "I'm not mad, or insane or any other name you want to put to it. My mental health would be fine if it wasn't for you trying to shove me out of your life because you are scared."

Lucifer stiffened up a bit at that. "I'm the devil. I don't get scared!"

Trixie giggled at that. "You're silly. Everyone gets scared."

Linda smiled at the television and turned to him. "Out of the mouths of babes. Trixie is right, Lucifer. Everyone gets scared. I know you do."

Lucifer scowled at her. "I thought that what I do or say in sessions was kept private?"

"Did I tell anyone what you did or said?"

He blinked, wondering when this suddenly went from what they were meant to be talking about to this. They still haven't discussed him showing the women yet.

"Can we please get back on track here? Lucifer, both Linda and I agree with something you're not happy with, but we think it will help you in the long run."

Lucifer perked up at that. "Oh? Am I going to like this surprise?"

Off the face both he and Linda gave him, he shrunk down in his seat and clung to the girl in his arms as if she was his shield from them. "I'm guessing those looks mean no. Alright, might as well tell me..."

"We think you should show Chloe and Ella," Linda stated out loud as blunt as anything. Dan would have tried to ease him into the idea, but that was out of the question now.

Lucifer froze at that and his wings suddenly came out and covered his body.

Dan could hear Trixie squeal with delight under the mass of white feathers. She was whispering something or talking quietly, because he couldn't quite hear what she said to him, but he heard Lucifer's answer right enough.

"Shush, child. I am hiding."

"But everyone can still see you, silly. Can I touch your wings, please? I want to see them properly. It's dark under here!"

Lucifer sighed loudly enough both humans outside the feathery appendages could hear it. The wings shifted and suddenly both Lucifer and his daughter were once again visible.

The wings stayed out, shivering slightly with suppressed emotions. At least they weren't sharp, which meant he wasn't feeling threatened or angry.

Trixie almost immediately went right to town on those wings, carefully running her hands over the quivering white plumage. It seemed to have a good effect on Lucifer. Soon his wings had stopped their shivering and were draped comfortably over the back of the couch.

"I don't want them to see..." Lucifer stated from out of nowhere after only five minutes of petting.

Dan sighed. "Lucifer, man, I'm fine. Linda is fine and has been for quite a while. We know who you are and we aren't bad people. Your scars aren't going to hurt us. We are shocked and horrified, yes, but it's not because we find it scary. Lucifer, we feel that way because we know what caused it and that kind of damage is extensive. We are horrified not because we are losing our sanity, man. We're horrified because you had to go through so much trauma to look like that."

Lucifer blinked at him and his wings tried to hug his back, but were stopped by the couch. "Why? Why would you be worried over that? It happened so long ago."

It was Linda's turn to sigh. "Lucifer, you were very badly hurt and it left lasting scars. That kind of damage, no matter how long ago it happened, stays with a person. The only way you are ever going to feel better about it is to accept that we know, and don't mind, that you have scars. That and an actual apology from your father, but I don't see that coming any time soon..."

Lucifer snorted. "I think the wings being given back were meant to be my apology...he didn't even bloody ask!"

The wings didn't get sharp, but they did start to puff out in the way they went when he was angry. He must be holding himself back a bit for Trixie's sake.

Linda put a hand on the shoulder closest to her. "Lucifer, I think it really should be about time you talked about that. But that can wait for next session. You've been avoiding it, I know you have, but it's not doing you any good trying to deny it."

Lucifer let go of Trixie to bury his head in his hands. "I don't want to. I don't want to show the girls. I don't want to talk about it. Please, just leave it alone..."

Linda shook her head. "Lucifer, Dan knows about your scars and doesn't mind. He's not going to run out on you. He's worried about you avoiding him."

Lucifer dropped his hands to Trixie's back and begun running a hand through her hair and Dan blinked. It didn't look like normal head petting. It took him a few seconds to realise what he was doing.

He was grooming her in a way that he could with a human. Grooming was a comforting activity for angels. He wondered if hair grooming happened with the wing grooming and if he and Ella had been skipping that part of the whole ritual.

Dan didn't say anything though. Trixie had let go of Lucifer's neck and was curled up in his lap. By the slow, even breathing, she had fallen asleep.

"Here, let me put her to bed," Dan whispered, before getting up, reaching down and transferring her from Lucifer's lap to his arms. She didn't wake up.

He took a few minutes, after putting her back in her bed just to stare at her and wondering why she looked so much more older than she really was right then. By the time he got back into the lounge room, Lucifer was gone. Fled when he was putting his daughter to bed.

Linda looked at him and grinned. "Well, that went better than I thought it would. He's beginning to open up a bit about things he doesn't want to talk about. Give him a couple of days and bring it up again during grooming time."

He nodded. "Yeah, I will wait a few days, maybe a week to let him calm down and then ask again. And grooming time would be a good time as any. He's much more relaxed then. At least then he'd be showing only Ella and he can ease into showing Chloe."

Linda nodded. "Yeah, that would be the way to go. I think Ella will probably be the one who will take things the easiest out of all of us."

Dan nodded. "Yeah. Well, I should be getting to bed now. Thanks for coming over tonight for this. Goodnight."

"Night. And thanks for inviting me."

He was curled up on the sofa bed in no time and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. He didn't even wake up when Chloe got home at 3 that morning.

Things were looking up.

At least he was no longer being ignored by Lucifer.


	4. Ella Next

Ella Next

Lucifer was snoozing after being groomed. Lying face down on his deck chair designated for feather care. Dan had thought it weird to begin with that Lucifer had begun using this one chair for this one purpose, but he no longer felt so.

Lucifer when it came to his wings was very routine oriented. Thankfully, he wasn't like that with everything. From chats with the girls, it seemed to be a natural part of an angel's life when it came to flock and grooming.

Dan wished he could put a routine in place which would make the stubborn angel show Ella and Chloe the face behind the good looking human mask he showed in public. He was seriously beginning to get pissy from Lucifer's constant refusal.

Linda had suggested he talk to Lucifer after grooming a week since their chat. That meant tonight. A whole week of not saying anything about scars or showing his face or anything Lucifer could take to mean any of those things.

He suspected Ella was getting sick. She didn't look too good, but she had perked up slightly when Dan had come back for his grooming duties.

"So! Wanna tell me just why you've been gone so long?" she asked, after folding the right wing up to lay in a resting position across Lucifer's back.

He had finished before her after a week off. It was a bit odd. Usually she was much faster than he was.

"It wasn't so much me staying away, as Lucifer forbidding me to go anywhere near him. Remember when he was learning to fly and he implied that he did have scars from when he Fell, but he refused to show us? Yeah, I got a look at those scars."

Ella gasped and leaned towards him. "Oh, shit dude! What does it look like?"

Dan shook his head. "I promised him I wouldn't tell anyone what they looked like. He'd probably be upset with me just mentioning I saw them but...I think you and Chloe should at least know. It's...it's really bad."

Ella nodded. "Yeah, Linda told us girls on one of our nights out that he proved he was the devil to her by showing those scars. She said it was utterly horrifying to see and she froze."

Dan nodded. "Yeah. He's really reluctant to show anyone he actually likes, because he sees it as a torture technique. A way to punish bad guys. He doesn't seem to get that to the people he cares about it's not a punishment to us. It's not horrifying because of how scary it is, it's horrifying because of how bad it is."

"For someone who said you wouldn't tell me, you sure are spilling your guts all over me about it. And yet I still have no idea what to expe..."

A loud sigh was heard from the deck chair before Ella could finish her sentence. "Do you two really have to gossip over this? I don't want to show you. Why can no one accept that?!"

Ella turned to him and frowned. "This is one of those things you should talk about but don't because of shame isn't it?"

Lucifer sat up and ruffled his feathers, before moving his wings to a more comfortable position. He shrugged his shoulders. "Yes."

Ella nodded. "Then you should show me and let me make up my own mind. Once done, you never have to ever again."

Lucifer crossed his arms and glared. "Yes, I will. Because I'd also have to show the Detective!"

Dan sighed loudly. "We're trying to get you to see that we don't care that you have scars, man. We accept you as you, no matter what you look like."

Ella nodded enthusiastically at that. "And I promise to only talk to those who have already seen, so no talking to Chloe about it if you don't want me to. Promise."

And Dan knew then that they had cornered Lucifer. If he didn't show, he'd think himself a bad friend. If he did show, he'd be doing something he didn't want. And guilt suddenly made itself known. Maybe it was wrong to push him into doing this...

But by then it was too late. Lucifer had made the choice to be what he'd consider a good friend. He cared for his flock too much to think of losing any of them.

"Fine. But only a peek, not for long. It can make people lose their minds."

"So can your wings and I'm fine with them!" Ella replied.

And suddenly it was like a light switch had been thrown. One second, Lucifer was stand in front of them, his face the same human looking mask he always wore and the next his face was basically gone in favour of a mass of muscle and bone. Dan noted that his eyes were red when his mask was off and he let out a "Huh!" at that discovery. He hadn't noticed the first time he'd seen.

It was no less horrific to see though.

Ella put a hand over her mouth and began to silently cry, before throwing herself at the mass of red that was Lucifer. Skin was back in place before she touched him and he managed to grab her, before she bumped her head hard against his chest.

Lucifer stared over at him, begging him to help out with the crying woman. He shrugged back, knowing that there really wasn't anything he could truly do to make Ella feel better.

""Oh, shit, Lucifer. I'm so sorry!" Ella managed to get out in between sudden loud sobs.

Lucifer just held onto her and patted her hair in that grooming pattern he had with Trixie. Yeah, that was definitely his way of calming others and himself down.

Soon enough Ella had stopped crying and was clinging to him, letting him play with her hair. Maybe she had also cottoned on to the fact it was a calming technique.

They were silent for quite a while after they had all settled down onto the couch inside. They had moved there when Lucifer got suddenly paranoid about them flinging themselves off his balcony.

Ella broke the silence a half hour later after a quick shake of her head, still leaning against Lucifer's solid and perfect looking body. "Is it all over?" she asked.

Lucifer sighed softly, no doubt surrendering to his fate of endless questions about his...skin condition.

"Yes. All over. Except my wings. I lost the feathers, but not the skin. The plumage must have been thick enough back then to act like a buffer. I had to pluck a few feathers when I landed in Hell to stop the burning spreading to the wings themselves, but I managed to stop the spread to only the skin of the rest of my body."

She reached out and cupped a cheek. "Does it hurt when you're touched?"

He shook his head. "No."

She sighed in relief and cuddled further up to him. "Good."

And with that said, Ella's questioning was over.

He hoped that Lucifer was taking note of how similar both his and Ella's questions were.

Well, one down, one to go.

Dan knew he'd have his work cut out for him when it comes to getting Lucifer to show Chloe. But still, he had seen Ella not have a seriously mind melting reaction. And him for that matter. Hopefully that would make things easier.

He'd wait for tomorrow's Netflix night before they began watching more Lost.


	5. Chloe's Turn

Chloe's Turn

Dan didn't ask right away.

For one, Lucifer looked like he was ready to run the moment he said a single word. It also didn't hurt that Chloe herself seemed to be insisting on sitting between him and Lucifer since she decided to go there early that afternoon to see what the whole grooming thing was about. Which meant that Lucifer was not in the best of moods, because his clear cut order of things was being disrupted.

Then of course, there was Dusty screaming at her for the same reason.

So, things were pretty much a mess.

It took half an hour before Chloe, bothered by being ordered about by a bird, decided the headache wasn't worth it and sat in her usual seat. After that, things calmed down. By that time, they all just wanted to relax, so instead of asking Lucifer if he would show Chloe his scars, he asked to put on the next episode.

Dusty flew from his perch by the couch to Lucifer's head and proceeded to groom his hair. Dan was still wondering if he had missed something with the grooming process but had yet to bring it up, more interested in the whole devil face thing going on right then.

The hair grooming, even done by a bird, seemed to be calming Lucifer down even further. Wings that had been curled up tight against his back shifted and he finally threw the things across the back of the couch, spreading them out and over slightly so that they covered all of them except Dusty. The bird had decided to perch on top of Lucifer's head that night, since even after the grooming was over, he stayed where he was.

For once, Lucifer didn't seem to mind.

They usually had a rule of watching three episodes a Thursday night. Tonight they stopped at the second one and Lucifer turned to Chloe.

"Right. Since I know both Ella and Dan are just about ready to yell at me, there's something I need to show you, Chloe. It's not very comfortable for me though, so please don't have a bad reaction..."

Dan blinked and stared. "Uh, Lucifer, I wasn't even going to suggest it tonight, but if you're ready you may as well go ahead."

Ella grinned over Lucifer's shoulder at him. "I think he was looking at me. I was paying more attention to him than the show."

Rolling his eyes he leaned back into a soft cushion of feathers. "I was going to wait for next week..."

Ella shrugged. "Too late now. Go ahead Lucifer. You're doing the right thing." She patted his shoulder closest to her.

Dan got up so he wasn't in the way of Chloe's vision. He blinked then at the sudden oddness of Lucifer saying her actual name. He still called her Detective over everything else. Still, this is someone who called a parrot Little Bird.

"Dusty, please go back to your perch. I don't want you on my head for this. You can go back there afterwards."

Dusty glared at the mop of slightly curling hair, gave a loud squawk and flew into his cage. Dan winced. Lucifer was going to have trouble with Dusty come the morning. He was still slightly jealous that Lucifer's every language also translated bird. He'd like to know what Dusty was saying half the time.

Dan sat on the other side of Chloe, thankful for the huge couch Lucifer had.

The devil took a deep breath and let his mask of humanity slip away.

Chloe stared. Then she pointed. Her mouth opened and Dan was worried she was going to scream.

"Oh! I wasn't imagining things or going mad. Thank God for that!" she stated out loud.

Dan blinked at her and it was time for his mouth to drop open. He was watching Lucifer for his reaction to that and saw a look of confusion on not only his face, but Ella's too.

"Detective?" Lucifer asked.

Chloe shook her head. "That case with the woman faking her own kidnapping. I saw you look just like this but only for a split second in a reflection. It was one of the reasons I shot you. I thought I had imagined it afterwards. I've been wondering about it since Linda told us that you still had scars. But I wasn't sure if it was real or not. At the time I thought I was hallucinating or going mad. I'm so relieved it wasn't that. Psych evals are horrible in the force."

Lucifer's skin was suddenly back in place, along with his hair. Dan couldn't figure out what the emotion on his face was supposed to be. So, he got worried when Lucifer got up and went to his nest. The three humans sat on the couch and exchanged looks with each other.

"So, should we leave him there to figure that out, or should we go?" Chloe asked, obviously confused about his reaction.

Dan shrugged. "I don't know...Dusty is already in his cage, so I think I'll put him down for the night and head home."

"If you need to go to look after Trixie, I can stay and do devil wrangling," Ella stated, starting to get up.

Chloe shook her head. "No, she's with Maze for the night. She would be in bed by the time I got back, or she should be. Sometimes I find them both curled up on the couch instead of the bed with the television still on. But, no, I will go and see if he's okay. I'm the one who upset him."

Dan frowned. "I don't think he's upset so much as confused, but if you're sure..."

Chloe nodded at him and Ella. "Yeah, I'm sure. You two can go home. I'll stay and sort him out."

Nodding, Dan got up, closed the door to the bird's cage and covered it with the towel lying off to one side for Dusty's bed time. He gave both the girls a quick hug each and made his way to the elevator. He turned back while waiting for it to open and grinned. "Good luck, Chloe. You'll need it. That one is a hard maintenance angel."

Chloe laughed and shook her head. "I'm sure I'll wrangle him just fine, Dan. But thanks. I'll see you at work tomorrow."

He grinned back and nodded. "See you both tomorrow."

With that said, he got on the elevator and spent the entire ride down to Lux happy with this turn of events. He thought tonight was going badly, but not only did he and Ella not have to bug Lucifer to tell Chloe, he did it on his terms, under his own steam and she had a good reaction towards it.

He hoped the aftermath of this confusion would pass okay for Lucifer.


	6. Lucifer's Scars

Lucifer's Scars

He knew something was wrong the next day when Lucifer was a no-show. Chloe was there at her desk, reading through a file on the case she had just gotten and she had yet to call her partner in to help with it.

Something must have gone wrong. Dan had the odd urge to drive to Lux to see how Lucifer was doing. He shook his head and went over to where Chloe was instead.

"Hey! So...how did last night go?"

Looking up at him, she smiled. "Last night went as well as expected. I swear, he can be just as, if not more sulky, than Trixie. And she's an 8 year old. I swear, if I wasn't sure he'd enjoy it I'd take him over my knee and spank him."

Dan blinked at that. "Wait...you spank Trixie? When did this start happening?"

Chloe looked at him blankly for a few seconds, before she started giggling. "No! Of course not. Lucifer is far past adulthood and should know better than to act like a child."

Dan nodded and grinned back at her. Okay, so maybe things didn't go so bad last night. "So, what happened?"

"A whole lot of whining about his father. Bitching about his brother, Michael. Complaining that the whole night had been disrupted because of me not sitting where I was supposed to and upsetting that bird of yours. Seriously, there was a lot of whinging going on."

Grinning, he shook his head. "What did you do to him?"

She shrugged and the grin got wider. "Told him to cut it out, or I would start treating him like I do Trixie when she's done something wrong. He knows I deny things wanted as a punishment sometimes, especially if it involves getting something better than what was lost or ruined. I think he thought I was going to rip up his nest up or something. He soon was acting better. Still a bit distant, but better. I really don't think he likes that part of himself."

Dan frowned. "Would you? Both me and Ella asked. It's over his whole body Chloe. And yes, I do mean his whole body. If he wants to talk about that, he'd probably go to Linda with it first, and from what I know of him, he hasn't talked about that yet."

Chloe scowled at hr computer screen. "Yeah. Sometimes I just want to smack the stupid grin off his face and shake him to make him see sense. And then I think I'm a bad person because he was obviously not only physically hurt when he got those scars."

Dan agreed with that. "Yeah, but hey, that's what he has a therapist for. It's not our job to make him better Chloe. He has to do that on his own. All we can do is help when he needs it."

Sighing, she nodded. "Yeah, I know, I just worry about him. He's my partner. I have to be able to trust him."

Dan hummed his agreement of that. It was an odd thought that they could trust him at all, considering they know, for a fact, that he was the actual Devil.

"I don't know. Do you sometimes get the urge to punch...never mind."

Chloe looked at him and shook her head, smiling the whole time. "His father? Oh yeah. And that makes me feel like I am going to go straight to Hell when I die..."

He nodded along with that, because that wasn't a thought he felt like entertaining for too long, unless they did all go to Hell for it. Still, it's not like they could punch God in the face.

Wait...did God even have a face to punch?

His thoughts since finding out the truth had gotten weird, that's for sure.

"So, where's Ella in all this? She wanted to stay over last night by the sounds of it. Did she?"

Chloe frowned and shook her head. "No, she went home shortly after you did. She didn't follow me when I went in to talk to Lucifer."

Frowning, Dan nodded. "Is she in? I haven't seen her yet today and usually she greets me before going to the lab."

Chloe blinked up at him. "Huh. Same, usually. She could be on something that really interests her. She tends to zone out everything then."

It was then that Chloe's phone rang. She answered it quickly when she saw it was Lucifer calling her. 'Hey, you're not still sulking are you?" she asked straight off the bat and Dan shoved a hand over his mouth to try and stop himself from laughing too loudly.

Chloe's frown deepened. "What? Is she okay?"

A bit of a pause followed that, before Chloe sighed. "All right. Just don't be too much of a nuisance to her. And water, get her to drink lots of water."

Dan leaned forwards. "Please tell me that's not about Trixie."

She shook her head. "No, Ella. She called Lucifer this morning early to let him know she wouldn't be any good for him in the next week or so. Seems she caught a bug. Lucifer's insisting on looking after her and keeping the rest of us away, because contagious."

Dan sighed. "Oh great, things are going to be interesting tonight. Did he say when I should go over? Earlier or later?"

Chloe shrugged her shoulders at him in response. "Nope, didn't say. He'll probably call you next though."

And just as soon as the words were out of Chloe's mouth, his own phone rang and the caller was Lucifer. Sighing, he answered the phone.

"I'm with Chloe right now, Lucifer. So I know Ella is sick. You don't have to go into specifics."

There was a slight pause, before he got an answer. "Oh, alright. No, I just called you to say don't worry about coming over tonight. I'm going to stay with Ella and make sure she gets some sleep and liquids in her. This bug is nasty. I don't want the Detective around, in case I can catch it. Right now, I am quite immune though and willing to help. But I could be spreading it in other ways. I don't know how it spreads, but I don't want to risk you too, or the Detective. So, please stay away until I tell you not to."

Dan blinked at his phone and snorted. "Ella will be fine. It's probably just the flu."

Lucifer snorted back at him after he said that. "Yes, a disease that still kills people in this day and age. Well, Ella is busy vomiting just now, so I will leave you to the detectiving. Bye."

Lucifer hung up before he could get a say in edgeways.

He ended the call on his end and put the phone back in his pocket. "Well, that seems interesting."

Chloe grinned up at him. "So, you going to follow his demand and stay away?"

Dan nodded. "Oh yeah. By the sounds of it, I don't want this bug to get anywhere near me."

Chloe nodded, before sighing. "We were with her yesterday though, so don't be surprised if one of us gets sick as well."

He grimaced at that. "Oh, I sure hope not." He sighed and stretched out, not feeling sick or tired in the slightest. "I feel fine at any rate. And I have to get back to work. Enjoy your day."

"You too, Dan."

With that, he went to the fridge, got out his labelled homemade pudding and made his way back to his desk.

It was going to be a very slow week. He just knew it.


End file.
